1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an axle driving apparatus containing a transmission of a type used together with a belt converter in a vehicle such as a carrier or transporter, in which power can be taken out of the transmission for a vehicle of a four wheel drive type.
2. Related Art
There has been conventionally known a vehicle, such as a carrier or transporter in which an axle driving apparatus containing a gear type transmission is used together with a belt converter as a power transmission mechanism interposed between an engine and driving wheels. Namely, an input shaft for the gear type transmission projects in a lateral direction on one side of a housing of the axle driving apparatus, so that engine power is transmitted to the input shaft via the belt converter.
Such a vehicle is generally of a two wheel drive type, and therefore, has poor traction. If a four wheel drive type vehicle is constructed such that power is taken from the lower portion of the housing of the axle driving apparatus as usual, to be transmitted to other wheels (i.e., front wheels in the case where the axle of the axle driving apparatus is the drive shaft for the rear wheels), a power take-off portion forces the lower end of the housing of the axle driving apparatus to extend downwardly, thereby reducing the minimum road clearance of the vehicle. Furthermore, in a transmission for the axle driving apparatus, torque is inevitably lost during the power transmission from the input shaft toward the axle, so that since the torque is low when the power is taken out of the axle, e.g., the gear of the power transmission means must be enlarged by the quantity of the lost torque, thus hindering compactness or low cost.